Date:10/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/10/stories/2008081058760300.htm

New Delhi

Truck in wrong lane kills 3 on DND flyover

Staff Reporter

The victims include two HCL employees, cab driver

“Police trying to shield the truck driver”
Action against flyover officials demanded

NEW DELHI: Three persons, including a young woman, were killed and four badly injured when the jeep carrying them collided head-on with a rogue truck coming in from the wrong direction on the Delhi-Noida (DND) high-speed expressway in the early hours of Saturday.

Two of the deceased – 24-year-old Navneet Kaur and 23-year-old Noor Babu -- were employees of HCL call centre in Noida. The third victim was jeep driver Fateh Singh, 47.

The injured have been identified as Sandeep, Dheeraj, Rajesh Monga and Lokesh Khanna.

Navneet Kaur was a resident of Lajpat Nagar while Noor Mohammed Babu lived in Sunlight Colony. Fateh Singh was a resident of Nawada.

The accident took place at around 4-30 in the morning when seven employees of HCL Limited in Sector 59 of Noida were on their way back home to Delhi in the office vehicle. It was while the jeep was travelling down the DND expressway that the truck speeding in from the wrong direction rammed into it. The police came to know of the accident half-an-hour later on being informed by the driver of another cab of the same call centre which happened to reach the spot ten minutes after the accident.

“Their colleagues told us that a major accident had taken place on the flyover as the cab had been hit by a truck which had entered into the wrong carriageway. The driver of the truck fled the spot soon after the accident,” said a senior police officer. The police later informed the families of the victims about the mishap.

Anguished HCL employees later alleged that the police were trying to shield the truck driver. They also demanded action against the DND flyover officials for allowing vehicles to ply in the wrong carriageway. The protest disrupted traffic movement on the flyover for almost three hours.

The rogue truck has been impounded and a case has been registered against the driver at the New Friends Colony police station. DND expressway has in the past also witnessed several such accidents. Recently a taxi driver was charred to death when a tempo coming in from the wrong direction collided with it and the taxi caught fire.